Tempest Reborn (11 page)

The satyr smiled knowingly. I could imagine him standing in front of a blackboard in a university, except for the whole naked-with-goat-haunches thing.

‘I’ve been poring over this, cross-referencing it to other things, looking at other translations and other alchemical poems that seem to fit this same model. And I think I’ve got it. You ready?’

I leaned forward, my turn for impatience as I made a perfunctory gesture with my hands to hurry up the satyr.

‘You’ve gotta get your hands on the White’s old bones. Then we have to perform a three-day ritual, the details of which I’m working out from the next part of the poem, with the help of this journal article. It’s like the guy wrote it with us in mind.’

Before I could say that idea was ridiculous, I thought about everything I’d seen when in thrall to the universe. If a human poet could become its puppet, scribbling away at a crazy metaphorical dragon-to-gold scheme, why couldn’t a scholar, working diligently to translate and make sense out of the poem?

I had a moment’s pang for all those vessels of the universe, toiling at what must have seemed to others like mad whims.

Caleb continued. ‘What I do know so far is that the ritual we’ll do involves the sea, and fire. At the end of all this stuff, the bones are going to yield a stone. Then we have to get ahold of the White itself and use the stone on him. The stone will transmute the White’s essence, and I’m thinking it’s going to take it into itself.’

‘Wait,’ I interrupted. ‘Whose essence? The White’s? Or Anyan’s?’

‘It has to be the White’s. This is about the dragon, not about Anyan.’

I had more questions, but Caleb kept talking.

‘It’s that stone that we use to tackle the dragons,’ the satyr said. ‘Through that stone, we destroy first him, then her. But first we have to figure out how to extract the stone from the White’s bones. So while I work out the details of the ritual, you need to get the bones.’

I opened my mouth to ask my questions but Ryu got there first.

‘And how are we supposed to separate the two dragons? We can’t have the Red flying about while we try to murder her mate.’

Caleb shrugged. ‘You’ve got to figure that part out while I translate and cross-reference the rest of this poem.’

‘Oh, we do, do we?’ Ryu asked, clearly irritated with Caleb’s high-handedness.

‘Wait,’ I said, before Caleb started apologizing. ‘I have a question.’

Both Caleb and Ryu turned to me.

‘What happens to Anyan in all of this? Does he survive?’

Caleb chewed on his bottom lip – not a good sign. When he finally spoke, he used his ‘confident healer’ voice. I imagined it was the voice he used to tell patients that they were probably dying, but still in good hands.

My lungs were suddenly too small, and I felt a sweat break out over my body.

‘To be honest, I don’t know, Jane. I really don’t. From what I’ve translated so far, the poem is only about killing the White, not saving a host.’

Caleb was clearly able to read the expression on my face.

‘You know we’ll do our best, Jane. We all want him back, too.’

I nodded, but I knew the truth. Despite the fact they didn’t want it to be so, everyone else understood that killing the Red and the White had to take precedence over saving Anyan.

At least everyone did but me.

‘You gonna be okay?’ Ryu asked, his voice laced with concern.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure about that one. We were standing in the last place I’d ever wanted to see again – the high cliff in Whitby where the ruins of the abbey had once stood. Now those ruins were really ruined, and half of the cliff had tumbled into the sea. The small cottages that had sat next to the abbey were burned-out husks.

And the soil here was soaked with the blood of the Original, Blondie, who’d died in Magog’s arms just about where I was standing. It was also the last place I’d seen Anyan, as Anyan, before his body had been hijacked by the White.

Ryu came and stood next to me, putting an arm carefully around my shoulders. It wasn’t an entirely unwelcome gesture, not least as it kept me from absconding to swim my cares away in the ocean behind me.

I’d swum immediately upon getting to Whitby, but right now just about the only thing I could think to comfort me would be the sea.

Or Anyan
, I thought.
Stripped of his dragonhood.

The creature shifted in my mind, a comforting gesture reminding me that it was there, and equally sad to see the place its child had died.

‘I’ll be okay,’ I said, finding the strength to make that optimism a reality. Then I looked up at Ryu to give him a grateful smile, one that he returned with a peck on the forehead. It was an entirely friendly gesture, which made me happy we’d come so far. But I disengaged to take a few steps forward, scanning the ground for the disturbance I knew I’d find somewhere near the burned patch that had housed the pyre upon which we’d burned the bodies.

‘There,’ I said, pointing. ‘It’s gotta be right over there.’

Daniel nodded, sending forth a few members of his team, armed with shovels. Knowing we’d want backup and help, we’d flown to the UK from Hong Kong on the dime of the British government, landing at an airbase somewhere in Yorkshire. The drive to Whitby had only taken an hour, and so far we’d had smooth sailing in this trip to recover the White’s bones.

But I knew we’d be discovered soon enough. For not even Daniel’s careful plans, and his trying to use only human, governmental resources, would keep the Great Island’s Alfar from discovering I was back on their turf. Not least because I already knew there had to be spies throughout the human government. Undoubtedly one layer of spies the humans knew about, so they had something to keep an eye on, and another layer of real spies. In fact, knowing the Alfar of the Great Island, there were a few layers of spies in between, just to keep everyone guessing.

I took a deep breath as I turned my back on the men digging, enjoying the scent of the ocean and the heavy tingle of power that came rushing through me with each inhale.

Before long, I sensed another tingle, at the farthest range of the sensors I’d let drift outward from me. I sighed, dragging my power back into a heavy shield, motioning to Ryu to join me.

‘We have company,’ I said, just as a quartet of black SUVs swept into view, their engines loud despite the sea calling behind us. Daniel motioned for his people to keep digging, even as he motioned for the men on guard to fan out behind him. Ryu and I joined Daniel, forming a greeting party to say hello to our guests.

‘Luke. Griffin. Minions,’ I said amicably as the Alfar second and his leader slowly got out of the vehicle after a couple of goblins dressed in flunky suits had done a quick sweep with their sharp eyes and powers, and then opened the door for their masters.

I didn’t seem to deserve a greeting, letting me know I was once again in trouble with The Powers That Be.

‘What are you doing exactly?’ Griffin said, ignoring both Ryu and me to get up in Daniel’s face. Despite being Alfar, Griffin’s emotions were palpable – and they mostly consisted of anger.

‘We’re retrieving the White’s bones,’ the human said, remarkably calm considering that, as a puny mortal, the being in front of him could crush Daniel like a bug.

‘We can see that. But why?’

‘Because we are. That’s all you need to know.’

Daniel’s voice was still calm, even affable, but his eyes were hard. I had to applaud him for standing up to the Alfar’s second in command, not least because Griffin could look damned intimidating if he wanted.

Which he obviously did want to do, right then. Griffin’s dark hair was slicked back into a very 1920s-looking style, and his eyes were narrowed to slits. His nostrils had also thinned out, and gone white, as if all the blood in the Alfar’s body was needed to keep him from pummeling something, magically or otherwise.

‘And since when is supernatural business human business?’ Griffin demanded, taking a threatening step closer to Daniel so that the Alfar was nearly on top of the human.

Daniel’s reply was immediate, and stated with precision, as if every syllable counted. ‘Since you stopped being able to control your own. And since we partnered up with the champion.’

Ruh-roh
, I thought, channeling Scooby Doo. Griffin’s head swiveled so he could stare me down.

I also noticed that Luke hadn’t moved a muscle. He was standing next to Griffin as if they could be anywhere at any time. There was no apparent awareness on the Alfar leader’s part that he was witnessing something of a historic event – the day that humans declared their overt involvement with a supernatural issue.

‘You have partnered up with Jane, have you?’ Griffin asked, venom dripping from his every word. The look he gave me was furious, and I wondered if we were going to end up in another firefight.

‘Does that mean we are enemies, then?’ The voice came from Luke, and even Griffin looked shocked. I wasn’t entirely sure if the Alfar leader was all there, mentally, since he always seemed so out of it.

‘No,’ Daniel said, even as I said, ‘It doesn’t have to mean that, no.’ We cast each other a glance.

‘What do you mean, it does not have to mean we are enemies?’ Luke asked, his voice still utterly flat.

‘I think we want the same thing,’ I told the Alfar leader. ‘I think we want to stop the Red and the White. So if that’s what we’re agreed on, I don’t see why we have to have a problem with each other.’

Griffin and Luke looked at each other as if communicating silently. I knew that was impossible for beings besides the creature and, apparently, the universe, but I’d seen it with other Alfar. It was like they’d known each other for so long, they had their own secret language, like twins.

Again, it was Luke who spoke first.

‘I am afraid, halfling, that our mutual cooperation will depend on your definition of the word “stop”. How exactly are you planning to stop the Red and the White?’

Luke had taken a few steps forward, enough to make him the clear ‘speaker’ of the group. And even though his tone was as colorless and polite as any Alfar, he had subtly started pushing his power around, as if to remind us just whom exactly we were dealing with.

The Jane of just a year ago would have probably gone ahead and taken a step back and let Ryu deal with it. I could tell the baobhan sith was itching to get in there, and I could feel him coiling up his own power behind his shields. But I was no longer that Jane, and this situation called for a champion.

‘Well,’ I said, taking my own carefully paced steps forward. They were just enough to bring me to within about a yard of the Alfar. I also carefully began pushing against Luke’s power with my own. I wasn’t going to pull the labrys unless I absolutely had to, but I let the Great Island’s leader feel the bite of the creature’s power. ‘The fact is our plan is a bit up in the air.’

Luke raised a brow, and I took a half step forward, pushing with my power.

‘But we know how it’s going to run,’ I said. ‘We’re working on a way to strip the White out of Anyan, saving his life. Then we’re going to use that power to take the Red. And we’re going to kill those monsters. For good this time.’

Unstated in my rundown of events was an implied ‘neener-neener’. For we were going to do what the Alfar had never quite managed – get rid of the Red and the White once and for all.

‘I am afraid,’ Luke said, ‘that this is where we will have to diverge from your plan, and ask you to reconsider.’

As the Alfar said the word ‘reconsider’, he gave my shields a hard shove with his power, to let me know exactly what he meant by ‘reconsidering’.

Instead of pushing back, I let my shields absorb the Alfar’s strength, as if his shove had been no more than a light brush of fingertips. Griffin moved a few steps closer to his leader, ready to help in a pinch.

‘Why would we reconsider?’ I asked. I meant that question rhetorically, but Luke was kind enough to answer.

His voice was nasal as he started in on his droning monologue. ‘Your plan is pointless, halfling. More powerful beings than you have failed to kill the Red and the White. They are indestructible. And while you pursue your selfish quest to rescue your bedmate, the consorts grow stronger. It is our people they will attack when they are ready, not yours.’

‘Rescuing Anyan is not selfish,’ I started, but Luke kept droning on.

‘You were made our champion, given tremendous power, but then you abandoned us to our fate. I call that selfish. We need you here, protecting us, not gallivanting around on an impossible mission.’

Despite my best intentions to no longer be surprised by the Alfar, I was surprised by the Alfar.

‘First you try to intimidate me with your power, which isn’t working by the way,’ I said, stepping even closer to Luke. ‘Then you tell me that you need me to
rescue
you? After you’ve called me a halfling
how
many times already?’

Luke blinked down at me owlishly as I tried to figure out what was going on here.

‘There’s no way you legitimately think that a halfling is needed to come in and save your ass. You guys would never believe that,’ I said, making a sweeping gesture with my arm to include Griffin in my assessment. I went ahead and kept talking as I tried to figure out the Alfar’s true motivation in trying to get me back onside.

‘You do know you need the champion, but I still can’t believe you’re so easily swallowing that the champion is me and that nothing can be done about that fact.’ Then I had an epiphany. ‘Oh, is that it? Are you hoping to lure me back so you can kill me or something, so someone else can take up the labrys?’

Griffin gave me a disgusted look, and Luke looked bored at my idea.

‘Believe me, we are aware you are more than adequate for the task at hand,’ Luke said, his voice even drier than it was before.

‘The task at hand…’ I mused, feeling the giant puzzle pieces of Alfar intrigue move around my mind, looking for the place they fit, ‘…which you want to be not killing the Red and the White.’

Then it hit me. Of course they wanted me as the champion.

‘That’s why you’re okay with a halfling! You want me to be the champion because you think I can’t be that powerful. You think I’ll do what you tell me and just chop up the Red and the White again, because that’s all I’ll be capable of.’